Sesame Peanut Noodles

I have bad news and good news. The bad news; I'm back at work :( I no longer spend my days doing all the things I really love to do. The good news however, is that having a job pays better than spending my days doing all the things I really love to do!

The one thing I do like about working is that because my work day is much more structured, my eating habits automatically follow suit. I have three meals a day and snack on fruit and cherry tomatoes in between. Because I try not to eat a huge dinner, my biggest meal when I'm working is usually my lunch and though I love to cook, I can't be bothered to cook every day so I tend to cook up a big batch of something on Sundays and eat that three or four days in a row - I really don't have a problem eating the same food day after day; so long as it is something I love. I don't always cook something healthy for lunch but I do try to make sure it is not too carb laden (huge bowl of pasta = 2 hour struggle post-carb fest to keep my eyes from closing!) and that it contains vegetables and protein. I tend to try out most of my new recipes for lunch too! 

Last week, I decided to try out another recipe from Nigella Express; Sesame Peanut Noodles. I was considering stir frying some seasoned chicken breast to add some more protein to this recipe but decided that it wasn't necessary as I eat protein at breakfast and dinner. So Ms Afropolitan, this is a completely vegetarian recipe. Don't say I never gave you anything! :D

Don't be daunted by the list of ingredients; you will have a lot of them already and some can be substituted, for example, I used stir fry oil instead of garlic oil though I'm sure garlic oil would have given it that lovely garlicky  hint which I love. And a lot of the ingredients are pretty cheaply bought, e.g. beansprouts, a lime... give it a go, it's simple, healthy and pretty tasty!

Ingredients

For the Dressing

1 x 15ml tablespoon sesame oil

1 x 15ml tablespoon garlic oil

1 x 15ml tablespoon soy sauce

2 x 15ml tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

100g smooth peanut butter

2 x 15ml tablespoons lime juice (about the juice of 1 lime)

For the Salad

125g mangetout

150g beansprouts, rinsed

1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into small strips

2 x spring onions, finely sliced (I love onions so I used 3)

2 x 275g packets or 550g ready-prepared egg noodles

20g sesame seeds

4 x 15ml tablespoons chopped fresh coriander

1 - Whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a bowl or jug.

2 - Put the mangetout, beansprouts, red pepper strips, sliced spring onions and the noodles into a bowl

3 - Pour the dressing over them and mix thoroughly to coat everything well.

4 - Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and chopped coriander and pack up as needed

Serves 8